Many vehicles, including bucket trucks, lift heavy loads to tall heights and thus employ an outrigger to stabilize the vehicle during a lift operation. The outrigger provides balance to prevent the vehicle from leaning too much to one side or the other. When the outrigger is not in use (e.g., when the vehicle is in motion), it is secured in a cavity of the vehicle. When the outrigger is being used, it can be hydraulically activated from a storage position, to a use position, extending outwardly and downwardly from the vehicle, engaging or resting on the ground. Outriggers commonly lift the entire vehicle, tires and all, off the ground.
Conventionally, outriggers comprise a beam, which is the leg of the outrigger, and a pad, which is the foot. The outrigger can be moved between its use and storage positions by hydraulics. In addition, sometimes floats are placed under the pad to dissipate the force and load over concrete or pavement. Floats are typically wood planks that are lined up to create a base that is larger than the pad itself.
Unfortunately, on more than one occasion, an individual standing on the construction site in the vicinity of the bucket truck has had his/her foot crushed by the outrigger, as the outrigger is being moved from its storage position to its use position. Thus, there is a desire for systems and methods of protecting individuals standing in proximity to outriggers when the outriggers are being placed in the use position.